Rubber as one of the basic industry occupies a pivotal position in the national economy. Traditional rubber can be divided into natural rubber and synthetic rubber. For now, natural rubber is facing the problem of small planting area and harsh growth conditions; and synthetic rubber most comes from petrochemical resources. However, petrochemical resources lack and are polluted. Therefore, preparing a new kind of rubber that satisfies the performance of traditional rubber and solves the problem traditional rubber-faced is an important development direction of rubber area. Bio-based Engineering Elastomer is disclosed by Zhang Liqun research group, Beijing University of Chemical Technology under this background. The raw material of bio-based engineering elastomer does not rely on petrochemical resources, it can be synthesized by using traditional rubber processing technologies, and the product has better environmental stability.
Due to its molecular structure, rubber has high elasticity but bad mechanical strength. Normally, the filler is needed to improve its mechanical strength to make full use of value. The most used fillers in rubber area are carbon black and silica. In this instance, production of silica does not rely on mechanical strength, compared with carbon black, and rubber filled by silica has better wet-skid resistance and lower rolling resistance. But silica has a lot of “—OH” on its surface, filler flocculation easily occurs, and bad dispersion effect influences the performance of rubber product filled by silica. Currently, silane coupling agent is used in rubber industry to improve dispersion effect of silica and interfacial force between rubber and rubber through coupling silica and rubber. Rubber filled with silane coupling agent needs heating treatment; it not only increases the manufacturing cost but also makes the rubber processing technologies more complex. Moreover, VOC is generated during manufacture process of rubber nanocomposite, such as methanol and ethanol which are harmful to the environment.
Poly (itaconate-ter-isoprene-ter-glycidyl methacrylate) is a new kind of environment-friendly bio-based elastomer, and it takes itaconic acid, alcohol, and isoprene as raw materials. These raw materials can be prepared by biological fermentation. Poly (itaconate-ter-isoprene-ter-glycidyl methacrylate) contains a lot of ester groups and epoxy functional group; ester groups form a hydrogen bond with silica surface to improve the dispersion effect of silica. Ring-opening crosslinking is occurred between epoxy functional group and “—OH” on silica surface, and it improves the dispersion effect of silica in rubber elastomer and interfacial force between silica and rubber elastomer greatly and improves the mechanical property and wet-skid resistance as well as lower the rolling resistance of rubber product, while at the same time it simplifies manufacture process without using silane coupling agent. There are also no VOC emissions too. Therefore, silica/poly (itaconate-ter-isoprene-ter-glycidyl methacrylate) nanocomposite is a kind of promising “green tire” rubber material.